No, I don't believe there's any way they can be misconstrued with the way that sport horses are flown, as the committee has heard multiple times. What I hear often in the testimony is the conflation of that with how animals are being shipped for slaughter overseas. We heard that today too. They were talking about all horses moving on transport truck, so it is important that the committee stay focused on air transport.
At the end of the day, I personally believe that horses were not made to fly. We've heard ample testimony. I did hear this morning from the CVMA that they believe the horses are able to have their five freedoms. I will just remind everyone of what those are. I'm going to read them off here.
The five freedoms, which have been in place since the sixties as a way to measure whether an animal is experiencing a high level of welfare, include freedom from thirst or hunger—we know that's not happening, because they're not getting access—freedom from pain, freedom from injury, freedom from fear or discomfort, and freedom to express their normal behaviour.
Clearly horses that are being put on an aircraft are not able to express their normal behaviour. For us, that's the red line right there. It goes back to what humane slaughter is, and this cannot meet a “humane slaughter” definition because it does not minimize fear and anxiety.